It was one of those usual I-need-my-sanity-back-so-let’s-meet-for-coffee nights. Actually, we haven’t done this for a long time because of our busy skeds or just simply, we don’t have the time. And so last night we decided to meet up and ended up seating alfresco at Café Mary Grace in Greenbelt 2.

Ensaymada is what Café Mary Grace was known for but we thought we’re too hungry for some fluffy bread with cheese, we started off with their pasta dishes.

Spanish Sardines & Olives Pasta

Spanish Sardines & Olives Pasta. An aglio e olio pasta with Spanish sardines adds kick to your palate, with mushrooms and tomatoes. Php212

Seafood Pasta

Seafood Pasta. Pasta with clams, squid, shrimp, and cream dory in seafood-based sauce with mushroom, herbs, and olives. Php244

The pasta we tried was okay. Tasty but we did not finish each of our plates as the servings were generously good for two people.

We hurriedly jumped from oily to sweet (and salty) and ordered hot choco and ensaymada.

Mint Hot Chocolate

Mint Hot Chocolate. Hot choco with a hint of peppermint. Php105

White Hot Chocolate. Tastes like melted Alpine White chocolate

White Hot Chocolate. White chocolate topped with crushed cashews. Php105

Three Cheese Ensaymada

Three Cheese Grilled Ensaymad. Ensaymada with cottage cheese, edam cheese, and Laguna cheese. Php164

Good food, check. Cozy ambience, check. Great company, check. It was the usual I-need-my-sanity-back-so-let’s-meet-for-coffee nights, albeit caffeine-free.

Café Mary Grace (Greenbelt 2) ratings:

Ambience: 5/5

Food: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Cleanliness: 5/5

Price: $$

CAFÉ MARY GRACE

Greenbelt 2
between Bizu and Spicy Fingers
Tel: 5013089/5013093 | 09175439402

There are so many good things I look forward to in every Hong Kong trips and one of them is hanging out at our favorite teahouse. Long before everyone raves about bubble tea and milk tea from Happy Lemon (Chatime, Serenitea, and more), HK locals would fill in this tiny teahouse tucked in one of the busy streets of Mongkok named Saint’s Alp Teahouse.

Established in early 90s, Saint’s Alp is the first to introduce in Hong Kong the leisure style Taiwanese teahouse concept bringing in bubble tea and other Taiwanese drinks.

Let me share here our fave treats.

It's always a happy feeling seeing this signage.

love, love this! Classic Toast with butter & condensed milk.

Classic Toast (Peanut Butter/Strawberry Jam/Butter & Condensed Milk/Coconut Butter). HK$14

Tasty tentacles

Crispy Squid with Salted Spices. HK$22

Yummy too

Deep-fried Cuttlefish Balls. HK$22

Matcha Nature with Matcha Agar and Mixed Berries Sorbies

Matcha Nature with Matcha Agar. HK$23

Mixed Berries Sorbie. HK$24

Double Chocolate

Double Chocolate Sorbie. HK$24

Our favorite branch in Mongkok but we did not see it the last time we went there. It was probably closed already

I am not a fan of milk tea but, my eyes popped out when I saw the logo of this teahouse in one of the establishments being constructed along Katipunan few months ago.

And guess what? It’s open now. Lez gooow!?

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Saint’s Alp Teahouse branches in Hong Kong here.

Saint’s Alp Teahouse Philippines

2nd Floor Regis Center

Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights,

Quezon City (in front of Ateneo de Manila University)

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I chanced upon this restaurant when I passed by Scout Lazcano in Timog on a week night. I thought it was just an ordinary cozy residential hosting a party as it was full of people and lots of cars parked outside.

Yesterday, my friend brought me there to have lunch.

Tucked in the heart of the scout area, the restaurant is owned and operated by the great granddaughter of President Carlos Romulo, hence the name—Romulo Café. Serving Filipino food on a modern plate, the place has a cozy ambiance divided into three dining areas with monochromatic interiors. We were seated in a black & white themed room with a ceiling to floor glass windows. There were rooms on the second floor available for small parties or functions.

On the walls are memorabilia of President Carlos P. Romula.

The menu has an extensive list of Filipino dishes but since it was a lunch for two, we opted to just order soup for starters, pork and veggies for main entrée.

Monggo Soup (P125) serves up to 4. This one is good. Cooked with dried baby shrimps (hibe) and chunks of chicharon.

Pork Belly Humba (P185) serves 2-4. Hmmmm, I was not that happy with this one. The pork is not that tender like the typical slow-cooked humba, sauce is too “chinese asado” like taste.

Bagnet Pakbet (P180) serves 2-3. I like this one and definitely won’t mind ordering again.

We only had cakes for desserts because when we asked for the menu list, the waiter pointed at the cake fridge case. I later found out they have other Filipino desserts such as leche flan and turon with calamansi sherbet (aaargh).

Brazo de Mercedes (P125). Or is it Lemon Brazo de Mercedez? The custard filling is quite lemon-y for my taste but I enjoyed the soft meringue as it was not too sweet.

Sansrival (P135). Chewy, butter-y, just like what a sansrival should be

Maybe we ordered the wrong dishes so I have to come back and try the other menus everyone was raving about—Boneless Crispy Pata Binagoongan, Kare-kare, and the Chicken Relleno.

Until then, Abe will still be keeping its number 1 spot on my palate.?

Romulo Cafe
#32 Scout Lazcano cor. Scout Tuason Street
Tel no: 332-7275

More pictures here.

Shame on me for I am a caffeine freak but haven’t tasted our very own Kape Alamid (I saw a jar being sold at Bag of Beans in Tagaytay) or what they call Civet coffee (Kopi Luwak in Indonesia and Weasel coffee in Vietnam). Aside from the fact that I find it a bit expensive—well it is actually the most expensive coffee in the world, I don’t have the guts to drink coffee from a cat’s poop. Not just yet.

To my understanding, these civet cats would pick the ripest, best quality coffee berries and gobble down their intestines. They will only digest the berries leaving the beans and during this process, digestion takes away the bitterness from the beans—naturally fermented in a cat’s digestive tract. The Vietnamese tour guide told us that it is believed that acid (probably he was referring to enzymes) inside the cat’s tummy is the main suspect for giving these beans a distinct and unique flavor. And why are they so expensive? The coffee bean farmers would pick those cat poops in the forest, get the beans, clean them, and prepare for roasting. So there you go a friggin $200-$800 for a kilo of beans.

In my recent trip to Vietnam I found out that Weasel coffee is being sold everywhere, not per kilo but per grams (45,000VND/100 grams). I thought it’s time to try. It took me a while to decide whether to buy or not but what the heck, it won’t kill me anyway.

So this weekend I will spice up my affair with caffeine, after all if it’s expensive it must be good.